by L. V. Lane
Ryker could only wheeze as he rubbed his throat, casting a wary look toward Ethan as he sat up.
“I’m done,” Ethan said.
He didn’t look done, he looked like he was picturing his hands wrapped around the smaller Alpha’s throat.
The floor managers turned to Lucian for approval. Muttering a curse, Lucian nodded, and they released Ethan. They didn’t step far away, so I was guessing they didn’t think Ethan was done either.
Ryker staggered to his feet. The only warning was a feral grin on Ethan’s face before he punched Ryker in the face.
For reasons that escaped me, this blow eased the tension. Ethan turned his back on Ryker and helped the floor managers right the toppled couch.
Lucian turned to me. “It’s over now, Pet,” he said as he gathered me in his arms and carried me back to the seat.
By the time Ryker staggered to his feet for the second time, everyone else was seated. I had straddled Lucian’s lap and pressed my cheek into the crook of his neck, where his scent was strong. His hands rubbed soothing circles on my back, and his chest offered that comforting rumble, but I struggled to find the calm.
“Ah, sorry,” Ryker said.
When I snuck a glance, he was sitting beside Ethan again. His neck was bright red and his lip bloody.
“Oh, and Lilly’s father is visiting tomorrow,” Ryker added.
Ethan sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. His right eye was swelling shut, so I guessed Ryker must have gotten a blow in. “We have enough shit going on. Don’t think this is going to stop me from disciplining her for allowing you to manipulate her, or beating the shit out of you after I’m done with her. Tsing and his deviant activities are turning into a fucking minefield. Do you ever take anything fucking serious?”
I pressed my face into Lucian’s throat again and tried to block out what they had just said. Discipline sounded ominous.
“What’s happened with the mad Doctor Tsing?” Ryker demanded.
“His connections to Salvation go deeper than I suspected,” Ethan said.
“The insurgent group with ties to the Uncorrupted?” Ryker asked.
“The very same,” Lucian said. “They’ve taken over much of Lyus. I still have contacts there. They moved in after the forced conscription took the Alphas out. They’ve been steadily increasing their presence over recent years and have taken control of several key gangs. It wasn’t pretty when we left, but there was order, of sorts. Now it’s chaos.”
The Uncorrupted were our enemy; we were at war with them, but I failed to see how that had anything to do with Lucian. And Lyus? Lucian had told me that was his former home world, and it sounded as though he still had an interest in events there.
My life suddenly became small and insignificant. The narrow band between my parent’s apartment and the arty coffee shop was the limits of my knowledge. The unquantifiable more became a blight waiting to swallow me up.
Danger; there was so much danger in his world, and now he was making it my world. “Hush, Pet.” Lucian stood with me still wrapped in his arms, and after a brief conversation with the two Alphas, he took me back to bed.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“TIME TO GET up, Pet.”
I didn’t want to get up, I wanted to stay tucked in what I considered to be my second nest on the bed. The bad memories from my childhood attempt at nesting had been replaced with better ones. There might be times during the last few weeks where Lucian’s actions had frightened me, but he had the utmost respect for the nest.
I played at being asleep, hoping he would go away. Today wasn't the first time I had refused to get up, and it usually bought me a few minutes.
The sepia-tinted windows had been dimmed so that only the weak glow of morning sunlight filtered in. Distantly, I was aware that Lucian had left the bed and of the sounds of water rushing through the shower. When he returned, he wore smart dress trousers and a crisp white shirt. He was talking on his communicator. “Has he given you his name yet?”
I secretly watched him add cufflinks and collect his watch.
“I’ll be down to see him later. I’ve a good mind to light the fucker up.”
My heart sped at those words; he was less circumspect talking in front of me now. I thought him quite capable of setting fire to a thing—or person, I thought he might have been talking about a person.
“Well, he works for Dino, and I want to know where the bastard is…Convince him to cooperate. How difficult can it be to get answers from one scrawny non-dynamic kid?”
My chest stilled, and then everything became a little manic. “Accept my proposal, and I will take care of him,” he had said right at the start. I had wondered if he meant Dino. Maybe this was unconnected, but something inside me gave pause at his description of the person he was questioning—and who worked for Dino. I had seen a few of Dino’s men, most were large Alphas or Betas. I was sure he must have many different dynamics and non-dynamics working for him, yet warning bells were ringing.
My brother looked nothing like me, not the hair, eyes, or any other facial features, and our builds were poles apart. A sudden terrible fear gripped me. What if Lucian’s quest to ‘find where Dino is’ put my brother in his path?
I squealed as the covers were ripped aside before Lucian dragged me out by my hair. “I told you to get up, Pet.”
Biting my lip, I tempered my moan of pleasure as I lay sprawled beneath his larger bulk. I had come to crave his domination, although he so rarely showed me that side. I often recalled the feel of his hand roughly tugging my hair on the day I tried to leave. Then after, the terrible emptiness inside when he cast me to the floor and rejected my touch.
I hadn’t given up the fight, but I accepted a need to change tack. He had access to suppressants, or his doctor would have, and with my heat imminent, I had requested another visit. To which, Lucian had readily agreed.
Yet, if Kais was Lucian’s prisoner, then I might have some hope of helping him if I stayed.
“My brother, Kais, he works for Dino,” I said.
His grip loosened a fraction, but he didn’t release me. I felt weak beside his power. “Does he now?” The calculation had entered his eyes. “And you are telling me this because?”
“Please don’t kill him. I hate that he works for that monster, but he’s my brother.”
Nothing in him softened at this statement, not his hold or eyes. If anything, they hardened. “Is he an Alpha?”
“No. He’s a non-dynamic…like I was.”
His lips tugged up on one side. “Were you listening in on my conversation, Pet? I haven’t killed any non-dynamics who work for Malaxos yet…What did you talk to him about?”
“I—” My mouth opened and closed while I fought for a way out of the hole I had just dug. “He said he would take care of me…I didn’t want him to.”
He growled, long and low, and my womb cramped like a fist had gripped it. My body bowed, and my soft purr came unwittingly.
My submission and the purr softened his anger.
“Do you like that, Pet. Like my fingers in your hair?” He tugged harder when I refused to answer. It was a rhetorical question since he knew that I did. “Bratty pets need to be punished. Encouraging such behavior would cause you more harm in the long run. Would you like me to warm your bottom up first?”
Warm my bottom up? What was he going to do, put a heat pack on it? A derogatory scoffing noise erupted from my throat. We both froze.
I found myself suddenly dragged so that my legs lay over the edge. Sensing that this turn of events was not a good one, I fought to escape. My flailing arms were captured and held with little effort in the small of my back.
Then he spanked me.
I struggled harder as the first stinging slap set my body contorting within the bounds of his hold. A deep sense of humiliation and injustice rose. I kicked out and fought with every bit of my limited strength. My behavior was more than justified, and I did not deserve to be punished.
&nb
sp; At some point, the pain shifted. I became dissatisfied with everything about it, the light restraint, the almost playful nature of the smacks.
Then the smacks became sharper, firmer, and I grew hot. Not just my bottom but my whole body. A flush swept over me, and my stomach tumbled over.
It felt like a catch had released inside my womb, and a flood poured out.
Panic assailed me such that I barely recognized he had stopped.
“Open your legs,” he growled.
I sucked in a sharp breath, and confused by what had happened, I immediately complied.
I was so hot and swollen that my pussy could barely take his finger, and I whimpered as he fucked me slowly with it.
“You’re very wet, love. Do you need to ride your master's cock?”
I swore I would have maimed him had he not still pinned my wrists to my lower back, and my temper and frustration spilled out. “Go fuck yourself!”
Before I met Lucian, I rarely swore. I had heard enough expletives from my brother, and my mother when she was drunk, and I found myself to be surprisingly creative.
The bastard chuckled. “You’ve imprinted, Pet,” he said, in that soft coaxing voice that made my pussy grip his finger. “It’s my duty to care for you.”
“Duty? Are you freaking insane?”
I tried to buck him off…but it drove his finger deeper, and I wondered if I was deluding myself, and had wanted that all along. “You need to come, Pet. As often as you can.” He stopped fingering me and instead turned his attention elsewhere, pinching my nipple, tugging and rolling it with just enough bite to leave me wanting more. I tried not to react because reacting would make him stop and I never wanted him to stop.
His sadistic nature played peek-a-boo, and he pinched harder. My resistance was like a red flag telling him to up his game.
“You know it upsets me when you deny your needs.” His smooth voice disarmed me as effectively as his talented hands. It wasn’t the real him, it was all fake. I had seen the real him the day he’d tossed me to the floor like a discarded toy. He was a monster, I could see right through his charm and faux concern for duty, yet my body did not care.
So many layers. Peeling back the first one had frightened me, what would the rest do?
“I was going to suggest you get in the shower before we have breakfast, but we both know your rebellion is an indication that you need to come.”
I couldn’t summon the will to answer him. My nipple had become a source of sharp bliss, and the longer he played with the little bud, the weaker my resolve became. But the thought of riding him again made me despair. I was exhausted, mentally, physically. I had spent half the night with his thick cock between my legs, had fallen asleep with it there more times than I could easily recount.
“That’s not what I want,” I whispered, and those magical fingers halted.
“What do you need?”
I shook my head, realizing my mistake.
A sharp blow against my sore bottom drew a squeal from my mouth.
“If you hadn’t enjoyed your discipline so much, I might be inclined to spank you some more,” he said, tone grave. “Now answer my question, or I will stuff your pussy with a toy and leave you tied to the bed with it there all day. I’ll make sure the setting is low enough so that you won’t be able to come.”
His words had the ring of truth, and I had no desire to test the evil nature of his mind. “I need you to do it,” I said softly.
His sudden release shocked me.
“You’re not ready, Pet,” he said, and as he stood, I slid to the floor. My fingers kneaded my sore bottom as I tried to get a hold on the sense of disappointment I felt at his words.
As I knelt there at the foot of the bed, the soft slide of clothing being removed set hysteria bubbling in my chest.
“You need to be dominated, Pet,” he said, and like a sleepwalker, I turned my head and feasted my eyes on all the emerging flesh. “Your behavior demonstrates how badly you need it.” A faint rustle followed as he dropped his shirt to the floor.
Piece by piece, he removed everything he had just put on. The sounds became magnified by my attention—I understood what would happen next.
When his cock finally sprang free, I was already too far gone.
I cursed him to hell and back, paced about the room, and tried to fight the urges gripping me as he lay upon the bed.
It was hopeless. I was a slave to my body's needs, I could no more stop this than I could stop myself from breathing.
Why was I fighting?
I did not have the answer, and bringing my restless pacing to an end, I crawled onto the bed.
In my line of business, it was essential to have easy access to locations where private conversations could occur. Below Peppermint Moon, far away from the eyes of Chimera’s party elite, was a storage facility. And below that, behind a secure door, was another world.
“Has he offered anything useful?” I asked, sending a brief glance at the scrawny kid gagged and bound on his knees within the sparse cell.
“My brother works for Dino,” she had said, and I eyed the kid and tried to work out if there was the vaguest familial resemblance. He was in a bad way, but even so, I couldn’t believe this prick was her brother.
Her confession explained how the mutt had come to know her. One only had to look at her to know why he would be sniffing around. I’d worked for a pimp, and I knew the kind of price a person who bore an Omega’s appearance could achieve—whatever their dynamic. Dino ‘the dog’ kept a little harem of whores that he hired out for a price.
The thought of her with that man had nearly gotten her forced into an early heat. The only way he’d be getting his hands on her was over my cold, dead body.
Kade shook his head. “Little shit is tough as nails. He can take a beating, that’s for sure.”
It had been two weeks since I had acquired my little pet. Two weeks of games and gentle fucking until she collapsed exhausted beside me where she would offer up her sweet Omega purr.
Not for the first time, she had been a brat this morning when I had woken her up and had refused to get out of the bed. I had come to enjoy baiting her nearly as much as I enjoyed fucking her. “I was hoping to take things slowly, give you time to adjust, but I can see that I’m doing you a disservice by taking such an approach. You need my cock regularly, Pet.” I had stroked a finger over her cheek, but despite my words, I had no intention of giving her what she really needed.
My little brat had told me, “Not to fucking patronize her.” How was I supposed to maintain my resolve in the face of that? I don’t know how I kept a straight face most of the time. Little Omega was lucky she didn’t get her dirty mouth stuffed full of cock.
I schooled my face into a neutral expression. “Do we need to get rid of him?” I asked Kade. The prisoner set to grunting and thrashing, although I paid him no heed. I would ask Rhett to locate a picture of her brother so I didn’t accidentally kill the prick. My business included several different clubs, a fight club, and an interplanetary shipping company. I could dispose of both people and things on and off this world should the need arise. Although a nobody dealer like this one required nothing more elaborate than his throat slit and his body dumped in a literal dark alley.
Madelyn was close to breaking, I could sense it.
“You need to be dominated, Pet,” I had said, and never had a truer statement left my lips “Your behavior demonstrates how badly you need this.” As I stripped, her eyes had alighted on my cock with hunger. I only had to lay back on the bed and wait for her. She had paced back and forth and cursed me with such foul language that it was all I could do not to spank her again. Had I trusted myself to keep it light, I might well have done so. It did not take long before she gave in, crawling over me, and taking my cock in her tiny hand.
Kade frowned as he pondered my question. “Not yet. There’s something off with his story.”
“Which is?”
“Oh, he doesn’t have o
ne. Refusing to talk to anyone but you.” He gestured at the prisoner who was rocking frantically and grunting like he was having a seizure. “Do you want to talk to him?”
I mulled that over. “No, I’m good…Where’s Jordan?” They were always together, so it confused me that Kade was alone. Deltas were a bit of an enigma. They were one of the rarest dynamics and early in life formed a close bond with another Delta.
They came as a package deal…I hadn’t realized the exact nature of the package at the time, but they were competent, and their other boss had specific requirements that didn’t interfere with mine.
“He’ll be along shortly,” Kade said, then added with a shrug. “He’s not coping well now that she’s leaving.”
“Leaving?” I queried, distracted by the kid who was giving me an eyeballing.
“The therapist,” Kade, elaborated. “And you know he’s not the most stable person.” I raised a brow in question. “She’s a Gamma,” he continued. “And…there was a gynecologist’s chair in her office. I don’t think either of us could focus on anything she was saying, and…it all got a bit out of hand.”
Out of hand? “What the fuck would a gynecologist’s chair be doing in a therapist’s office?” I muttered, then raised my hand before he could answer. This cast their therapy needs into a whole new light. “No, I don’t want the fucking details. Do you know how much she charges per session? I ought to dock your fucking pay.” I pinned him with a glare and tried to ignore the kid, who was still grunting. “Where is she going?”
He shrugged. “We don’t know. A remote station somewhere.”
“I’ll have it looked into,” I said because neither of them was going to be focusing on the fucking job until she was found. “I don’t have time for you to take a leave of absence to deal with this. But once this bullshit with Black is over, you can.”
“Great,” he said so quickly that I got mental whiplash.
He wasn’t the only one distracted. Watching Madelyn ride me was like watching my own damnation. All the fight, angst, and drama, followed by a dose of sweet capitulation. “That’s it get yourself off, love.” She had taken to incoherent begging by this point. A daily pattern of denial, followed by acceptance, followed by dissatisfaction and despair. I kept pushing, and I would keep pushing until I got what I wanted. “Play with your clit, sweet. That’s a good girl.” Too far gone by this point, she had done as I requested.